The sky is actually falling at the Great American State Fair.<\/p>\n
The stage for Freedom 250\u2019s July Fourth celebration fell apart during rehearsals Thursday, with a large component of the structure\u2019s ceiling <\/span>falling<\/a> roughly two stories down and landing behind a group of dancers and musicians. Miraculously, no one appeared injured.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The stage is falling apart at the rehearsal for Freedom 250’s July 4th celebration. pic.twitter.com\/bPbg94hp6X<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Aaron Parnas (@AaronParnas) July 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Online commenters were quick to flame the stage\u2019s apparently dangerous construction. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what happens when you don\u2019t consider merit in hiring,\u201d <\/span>wrote<\/a> one X user. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is why you never let Trump select the subcontractor based on percentage of kickback,\u201d <\/span>commented<\/a> another.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even a lawmaker joined in on the roast.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFeeling more and more like the Hunger Games,\u201d <\/span>wrote<\/a> Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie.<\/span><\/p>\n Practically every component of Trump\u2019s wildly expensive plan to celebrate America\u2019s 250th anniversary has turned out to be a dud. The $15 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool failed to rid the iconic monument of <\/span>algae<\/a>; a multi-week lineup of music acts had to be cancelled after practically every artist <\/span>pulled<\/a> themselves from the program; and a fleet of <\/span>buses<\/a> carrying a contemporary retelling of American history have failed to make a splash in their journey across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Great American State Fair was supposed to be the centerpiece of the celebration, yet even it is more of a potemkin village than a sincere homage. The booths, which offer space for each state to represent its heritage and culture (pet a replica of a bison at the North Dakota pavilion, or walk away with a bag of chips from Maine), are ideologically pitted against the seismic presence of the federal government and Trump\u2019s authoritarian expansion (banners featuring Trump\u2019s grim face flank the event, while a small-scale replica of his proposed \u201cTriumphal Arc\u201d sits center stage). As <\/span>The Atlantic<\/i><\/a>\u2019s Kelsey Ables put it, \u201cthe president is bringing down the mood.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Read more about the event:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Thursday that a grand jury had indicted former Olympic <\/span>canoeist<\/span> David Hearn on charges of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. <\/span><\/p>\n The indictment seems rather flawed, as Hearn, 67, <\/span>maintains<\/span><\/a> that all he did was dip his hand into the pool and touch a piece of peeling paint.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t vandalize anything,\u201d Hearn told <\/span>The Washington Post<\/i><\/span> the day after his arrest last month. \u201cI didn\u2019t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n At a press conference Thursday, a reporter <\/span>asked<\/span><\/a> Pirro why Hearn was being charged with a felony over something so small, and she struggled to explain. <\/span><\/p>\n Pirro: He caused damage and that damage was over $1000.<\/p>\n Reporter: How do you prove that?<\/p>\n Pirro: With an expert.<\/p>\n Reporter: With his bare hands?<\/p>\n Pirro: We believe it’s his bare hands, both hands.<\/p>\n Reporter: Do you believe it was damaged before?<\/p>\n Pirro: He damaged it!\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/LmtTZueKZU<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2014 Acyn (@Acyn) July 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThere was an effort, a violent effort, to rip up the sealant from the pool, and irrespective of whether or not we think that there is some situation that preceded it, we can state, and prove beyond a reasonable doubt, that he caused damage, and that damage is worth over a thousand dollars,\u201d Pirro said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When asked how she could prove that, Pirro said, \u201cWith an expert,\u201d and urged the reporter who asked the question to come to the trial. The reporter <\/span>incredulously <\/span>asked if Hearn used his bare hands, to which Pirro affirmed yes, both hands. The reporter then asked if the pool wasn\u2019t already damaged before.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, he damaged it. He damaged the pool. He damaged this pool,\u201d Pirro repeated. When the reporter brought up videos showing that the pool\u2019s paint was already peeling, Pirro said, \u201cWell, good. I\u2019m glad you got that evidence. Come on in the grand jury and you can testify.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n It all seems nuts, as the poor state of the pool, from algae growth to peeling paint, had been documented for quite some time before Hearn visited it. The paint had been peeling because <\/span>hydrogen peroxide<\/span><\/a> was dumped into the pool in a vain effort to kill algae growth. <\/span>Hearn is<\/span> clearly being made a scapegoat to satisfy President Donald Trump, who is <\/span>blaming<\/a> nonexistent vandals rather than admit he messed up the pool.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A heat wave in Washington, D.C., is making attendance at President Trump\u2019s July 4 festivities even worse.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. Capitol Police have already restricted Thursday night\u2019s rehearsal for \u201cA Capitol Fourth Concert\u201d to essential personnel, <\/span>posting on X<\/span><\/a> that they came to the decision after consulting with the Capitol\u2019s Office of the Attending Physician.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFor safety reasons, the public will not be able to attend tonight\u2019s rehearsal concert,\u201d the post read. \u201cEveryone is sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. The National Weather Service is forecasting an extreme heat watch with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The post added that an update will come Friday by 10 a.m. on the status of the full concert, which is scheduled to take place from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday night.<\/span><\/p>\n Similar warnings are hitting the Great American State Fair; organizers have already had to <\/span>cancel<\/span><\/a> a rodeo demonstration scheduled for Thursday night. Attendance at the fair overall has been depressed, and some visitors are complaining about the weather. U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer had an <\/span>audience<\/span><\/a> of maybe 25 people when he spoke about tariffs on the main stage Thursday afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n Many booths at the fair don\u2019t have air conditioning, leading at least one visitor to overheat. She told a reporter she finally found relief at a <\/span>baptism tent<\/span><\/a>, where she took a dip to cool down.<\/span><\/p>\n Great American State Fair goer tells our @JenDelgadoFOX<\/a> many of the booths she went to today didn’t have air conditioning, she overheated, said she saw stars and needed medical attention — found the baptism tent and took a dip to cool down pic.twitter.com\/Smufj0GN8g<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Homa Bash (@HomaBashNews) July 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Even without the heat, the fair is coming across as <\/span>tacky<\/span><\/a>, with empty booths and a lack of energy. The food is <\/span>expensive<\/span><\/a>, reviews are <\/span>abysmal<\/span><\/a>, and people aren\u2019t coming, <\/span>enraging<\/span><\/a> the president. When it hasn\u2019t been hot, it\u2019s been raining. America\u2019s 250th anniversary was already going poorly thanks to Trump, and now the weather may cement the once-in-a-lifetime event\u2019s status as a <\/span>failure<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yet another Republican lawmaker is missing in action.<\/p>\n Florida Representative Neal Dunn\u2019s office told <\/span>Punchbowl News<\/a> Thursday that he won\u2019t be voting unless Republican leadership says they need him.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Donald Trump put the 73-year-old lawmaker <\/span>on blast<\/a> in March, prematurely revealing at a White House event that Dunn was suffering from a terminal heart problem and would be \u201cdead by June.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Congressman Neal Dunn of Florida had had some real health challenges, and it was very serious, and had had a pretty grim diagnosis<\/span>,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson <\/span>admitted<\/a> at the event at Trump\u2019s behest. \u201cI mentioned it to the president. I said, \u2018Congressman Dunn is a real champion and a patriot because he\u2019s still coming to work, and if others got this diagnosis, they would be apt to go home and retire.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat was the diagnosis?\u201d Trump pressed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was\u2014I mean, I think it was a terminal diagnosis,\u201d Johnson said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe would be dead by June,\u201d Trump interjected, before Johnson confessed, \u201cThat wasn\u2019t public.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Dunn has not been on Capitol Hill since June 11 and has so far missed 11 votes, according to his <\/span>voting record<\/a>. Nonetheless, he has not announced any plans to truncate his time in office. In January, Dunn released a <\/span>statement<\/a> indicating that he would not seek reelection, though the former Army surgeon is apparently not planning to formally bow out before the end of his term.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dunn has a bad track record with missing votes. Since he entered the House in January 2017, Dunn has missed 246 of 4,992 roll call votes. That means the septuagenarian has missed at least 4.9 percent of the votes that took place during his term, according to an analysis by <\/span>Govtrack.us<\/a>, which is much more than the median of 2.1 percent missed by other representatives.<\/span><\/p>\n But he\u2019s not the only Republican who\u2019s been missing in action. Representative Tom Kean Jr. was absent from Congress since March 5, sparking a Washington brouhaha that lasted until Tuesday, when he suddenly appeared before the House floor to <\/span>share<\/a> that his inexplicable multimonth absence was due to depression. Notably, Kean has <\/span>voted repeatedly<\/a> to block paid sick leave for his constituents.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Read more about MIA lawmakers:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Department of Justice accidentally released the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith\u2019s report on President Trump\u2019s handling of classified documents in a legal case last month, according to a <\/span>legal filing<\/span><\/a> published Thursday. <\/span><\/p>\n DOJ lawyers sent the sealed report to lawyers for Carmen Lineberger, who was charged with stealing the report by emailing it to herself disguised as a cake recipe. On June 3, DOJ officials handed over discovery items on flash drives to Lineberger\u2019s lawyers. Included in those drives were documents embedded in electronic messages that were required to be disclosed. On June 9, the defendant\u2019s attorneys reported they found three documents and contacted the government to confirm if they were supposed to be part of discovery materials.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n After they reviewed the documents, DOJ lawyers confirmed that they were actually copies of Smith\u2019s report. Defense attorneys told the government they stopped reviewing the material before examining the report itself, deleted the discovery materials they had downloaded, and handed the flash drives back to the government. Thursday\u2019s legal filing was to notify Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge presiding over Trump\u2019s classified documents case.<\/span><\/p>\n The accidental leak has to be embarrassing for the government, considering Trump\u2019s successful effort to keep the Smith\u2019s report <\/span>hidden from the public<\/span><\/a> after he won the 2024 presidential election. The defense counsel could have leaked the documents, but considering that their client was accused of improperly handling them, chose to follow the rules.<\/span><\/p>\n The situation is ironic, considering Smith\u2019s report was all about how Trump allegedly mishandled classified documents by keeping them at Mar-a-Lago instead of returning them to the government. Smith\u2019s case wasn\u2019t allowed to go to trial thanks to Cannon, a Trump appointee, <\/span>dismissing<\/span><\/a> it on flimsy grounds. It seems that the public may never know the full details of what Trump did.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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